


Shitty Robots, Beauty Vlog

by winter_writes



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Autistic Entrapta (She-Ra), Canon Autistic Character, Canon Disabled Character, Chronic Illness, Crack, Don't copy to another site, Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Kissing, Light-Hearted, Relationship Reveal, YouTube, Youtube AU, mild crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:28:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24681562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winter_writes/pseuds/winter_writes
Summary: Entrapta makes videos of herself building intentionally shitty robots. Hordak runs a beauty vlog.People are more than a little shocked to find out that they’re dating each other.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Comments: 37
Kudos: 326





	Shitty Robots, Beauty Vlog

Scorpia loved Entrapta’s videos. They never failed to put a smile on her face. 

There were plenty of videos on the internet about robots, but Entrapta’s robots were special. Entrapta’s robots were deliberately shitty. 

Their programming had bugs. They jittered. They never _ever_ did exactly what they were meant to do. Entrapta had designed them that way. 

In her first ever video, Entrapta explained that, as a highly qualified mechanical engineer, she was more than capable of making each of her robots as close to perfect as possible. But she didn’t want to. It was an expression, she explained, of how imperfection wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. 

In her latest video, she had made a robot that was shitty at applying lipstick. The first part of the video was Entrapta explaining how she’d built it, while her one-eyed white Maine Coon, Emily, napped in the background. Scorpia didn’t know much about mechanics, but it was still pretty interesting. 

The description of the build done, Entrapta got on to the second half of the video: testing the robot out. 

She adjusted one of her signature purple ponytails, and said, “Now for testing it out! I usually never wear makeup, so I thought that I’d better get someone who does. Professional expertise, you know! So, everybody, say hello to my boyfriend, Hordak!” 

Scorpia choked on her drink. 

* 

Scorpia loved Hordak’s videos. They’d taught her a lot. 

There were plenty of videos on the internet about makeup, but Hordak’s were better. Hordak did videos about wearing makeup for disabled people. 

There were all kinds of things: how he wore foundation to match with his vitiligo, how to apply lipstick when you had limited movement in your hands (Scorpia had found that one really helpful; she was strong, but her fingers weren’t properly developed so it was really hard to grip things), and he’d even done a video on shopping for high heels while physically disabled. 

Scorpia had learned everything she knew about how to apply eyeliner from his videos. 

She knew that her friend Catra knew him at least in passing – they’d done a joint video together where they ranked different brands of black nail polish – but she’d never asked for an introduction. As much as she liked his videos, Hordak was just so… intimidating. 

It wasn’t just the way he looked, though that was definitely part of it. Well over six and a half feet tall, and he always wore dark eyeshadow. 

No, it was his attitude. There was something about the way he acted that made it clear that nobody, absolutely nobody, was worthy of watching his videos. She’d seen a clip of him at VidCon when someone had dared to ask him why he wore “women’s dresses”. He had responded with a glare that could wilt crops, and said, scathingly, “They’re not women’s dresses. They’re _my_ dresses, I bought them. And you’re hardly in a position to comment about fashion, coming here wearing a t-shirt like _that_.” 

His next video had been about the fact that, as a person with mobility issues, he preferred dresses because they were easy to put on over his braces. 

Overall, Hordak was stylish, stern, and terrifying. The complete opposite of Entrapta. 

* 

At first, Scorpia’s brain hadn’t accepted the fact that Entrapta and Hordak were dating. No, surely she’d misheard Entrapta. Maybe Entrapta had said “Horace” or “Hugo”. 

Except that Hordak had just stepped onscreen and sat down next to Entrapta, his dyed-blue hair perfectly styled, his signature black eyeshadow flawlessly applied, the custom-made supportive braces on his forearms gleaming. His black dress would have been at home on the red carpet. 

Entrapta, meanwhile, was wearing her trademark purple dungarees and an oil-smeared white t-shirt. 

Scorpia’s brain was still struggling to accept what she was seeing. 

“Greetings, Entrapta’s viewers,” Hordak began. “The lipstick we will be using today is a deep purple that pairs well with black or silver clothing.” He went on to give a little more information about the brand. 

And then they were ready to test the robot. Entrapta screwed the lipstick into the robot’s clamp, then made sure that Hordak was sitting in the right position. 

She turned the robot on. It pivoted on its base, its mechanical arm extended, and smeared lipstick messily over Hordak’s mouth, before reverting to its original position and falling still once more. Somehow he managed to keep a straight face. 

Hordak looked into the camera. “The things I do for love…” 

“Oh, that worked perfectly!” said Entrapta. 

“Indeed it did,” said Hordak. He kissed her cheek, leaving a smudge of dark purple on Entrapta’s brown skin. He turned back to face the camera. “Now, if you switch over to my channel, you will find a video on how to fix smudged lipstick when you have limited mobility in your hands, and the only things in your purse are a packet of tissues and a stick of concealer.” 

“And remember,” said Entrapta, “Imperfection is beautiful!” She waved at the camera, and the video ended. She always signed off that way. 

Scorpia felt like her brain was short-circuiting. Entrapta was – and Hordak was – they were so _different_. 

She texted Catra. 

With the text sent, she turned over to Hordak’s channel. She wanted to check out his lipstick fixing video. 

* 

Catra checked her phone. “Ha! Scorpia just found out that Entrapta’s dating Hordak.” 

Three pairs of eyes turned to stare at her simultaneously. 

“What?” said Adora, who was resting after completing her latest workout video. 

“She’s dating who?” asked Glimmer, in the middle of editing a social justice rant in time for a Saturday upload. 

“Oh, I already knew about it,” said Bow, in the middle of modifying an arrow for his next trick archery video. 

“You did?” asked Glimmer. “Why didn’t you tell me?” 

Bow blushed. “Because I – look, I wanted to respect their privacy, and I really didn’t mean to…” 

Catra narrowed her eyes. She’d just uploaded her latest freerunning video, so unlike the others she didn’t have anything better to do this evening than admire Adora’s biceps and dig for gossip. “You didn’t mean to _what_?” 

Bow blushed an even deeper shade of red. “I – it was a total accident, okay? Look, it was at VidCon last year, I was looking for the bathroom, and I took a wrong turn into one of the venue’s storerooms and –” He put his head in his hands and mumbled something incomprehensible. 

“What?” said Adora. “I can’t – I can’t make that out, Bow.” 

“I said,” said Bow, still face-deep in his hands, “That I saw them making out. Like, fully.” 

“Oh,” said Glimmer. 

“And I didn’t tell anyone because I was trying to respect their privacy. I don’t think they saw me.” 

“Okay,” said Adora. “Okay. So Hordak is dating Entrapta. Entrapta is dating Hordak. This is a thing that is happening.” She groaned. “Ugh, I just can’t! He’s basically my dad!” 

“Not really,” said Catra, who’d been brought up in the same orphanage as Adora. “He’s like, your mentor at most.” 

“He taught me everything I know about editing videos. And he is dating the woman who picked the lock on our front door because she was out of lemonade and she wondered if we might have some.” 

“Yeah, but we _did_ have some,” Bow pointed out. “And she baked us tiny muffins to say thank you.” He frowned. “Wait. Catra, how are you not surprised by any of this?” 

Catra shrugged. “Entrapta has been spending a lot of time with Hordak for, like, a _while_. She even made him new braces. I figured something was going on there. Honestly, I though you had all figured out the same.” Catra loved her friends, but they were pretty dumb sometimes. 

* 

Next week, Bow and Glimmer went to visit Entrapta. As always, her flat was full of half-completed robots, shitty and otherwise. 

Glimmer was doing a video on the intersection between sexism and ableism, and she wanted Entrapta’s input as an autistic woman. Bow wanted to run a few arrow designs past her. 

Entrapta was just pouring them some cups of coffee when her bedroom door opened, and Hordak came out. Emily immediately sprung off the couch and started rubbing herself against his legs, purring loudly. Clearly, she was very fond of him. 

Glimmer and Bow stared. It was way too early for him to also be visiting Entrapta. And his clothes were slightly rumpled. 

“Ah,” he said. “You have guests.” Was it Bow’s imagination, or was Hordak blushing slightly? 

“Yeah,” Entrapta gestured in the direction of her visitors. “I think you already know Bow and Glimmer?” 

“I do.” He straightened his skirt. “Well, I think I shall leave now.” He bent down, scratched Emily between the ears, and walked out of the apartment, kissing the top of Entrapta’s head as he went.

**Author's Note:**

> As with my other Modern AU Entrapdak fic (The mechanics of Ikea furniture), Hordak has vitiligo, ocular albinism, and he wears braces on his arms, lower legs, and back. And Emily is a fluffy cat!
> 
> Scorpia is shown to have difficulty picking things up because of her claws, so I decided to continue that here with her having difficulty with fine motor control in her hands, which is why she watches Hordak’s videos.
> 
> Entrapta’s shitty lipstick robot is inspired by one of Simone Giertz’s videos, which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcW70-6eQcY
> 
> Comments and kudos = love
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own the characters. I am not making money from this work.


End file.
